The recent awards ceremony in Mumbai lauded 19 SMEs from 16 cities.Date: January 16, 2020Venue: National Stock Exchange (NSE), MumbaiOrganiser: Industrial Products Finder (IPF)In its 48th ye...
The recent awards ceremony in Mumbai lauded 19 SMEs from 16 cities.Date: January 16, 2020Venue: National Stock Exchange (NSE), MumbaiOrganiser: Industrial Products Finder (IPF)In its 48th year, IPF, India鈥檚 largest circulated industrial magazine, hosted its 4th IPF Industrial Excellence Awards in Mumbai during which 19 SMEs from 16 Indian cities were honoured for their achievements during the year.聽The 2020 edition of the awards was held in the presence of Guest of Honour Naseem Sharifi, Consul General of Afghanistan; Bhavesh Thakkar, Partner (Tax and Regulatory), Ernst and Young LLP; and Rachana Bhusari, Vice President-SMEs, National Stock Exchange of India (NSE).Every year, the awards are presented in two categories: 鈥楩astest Growing Manufacturing Companies鈥� (under Rs.5 billion turnover) and 鈥業nnovative Products鈥�. This year, in addition to these, IPF presented awards in two new categories 鈥� 'Promising Start-Up of the Year鈥� and 鈥楨ntrepreneur of the Year鈥� (Female and Male) 鈥� to recognise and appreciate the contribution of start-ups and entrepreneurs to job creation and economic growth.Mohini Kelkar, Managing Director, Grind Master Group, was named IPF Female Entrepreneur of the Year, while Jignesh Raval, Managing Director, Sintercom, was IPF Male Entrepreneur of the Year. The winners were selected by a jury panel comprising eminent personalities from the industry and engineering institutes.Congratulating the winners, Guest of Honour Naseem Sharifi said, 鈥淚ndia and Afghanistan have strong bilateral relations for decades and India has been an active trading partner. Currently, India鈥檚 exports to Afghanistan amount to about $700 million and Afghan exports to India have increased by 60 per cent. We respect India鈥檚 love for our products like saffron. With bilateral trade, India is rebuilding Afghanistan.鈥滺ighlighting areas where SMEs can empower themselves, Pratap Padode, Founder & President, Foundation of Infrastructure Research Studies Training (FIRST), said, 鈥淪MEs being the backbone of the Indian economy will always strive to think: 鈥榃hat can I do apart from what I do?鈥� Just 1 per cent of SMEs today with business below Rs.2.5 billion are filing their yearly returns. If they increase, tax collection increases. Higher tax collection will result in more schemes and more schemes will help SMEs grow.鈥� He went on to add that availing credit facility, use of inferior technology and access to the right marketplaces for their products are some major challenges to SME growth in India.ECGC was the Associate Partner of the event, while NSE and CARE Ratings were the Exchange Partner and Knowledge Partner, respectively. Besides, leading industry associations like Plastics Machinery Manufacturers Association of India (PMMAI), Pimpri-Chinchwad Plastic Association (PCPA), MAIT (Manufacturers' Association for Information Technology), MRO Association of India and Federation of Associations of Maharashtra (FAM) extended their support to the event.Coping with challengesIPF also hosted a highly engaging 鈥楥EO Forum鈥� panel discussion on the theme 鈥楨ssential Survival Strategies for SMEs鈥�.The panel discussion was moderated by Saikat Roy, Director & Head-SME, CARE Ratings.聽The panellists 鈥� including Rachana Bhusari; Mohini Kelkar; Nitin Pangam, CEO, Maeflower Consulting; Vijayanand Choudhury, Global Head Procurement, Tata Technologies; and Neeti Sharma, Senior Vice President, TeamLease Services 鈥� discussed some imminent challenges before SMEs and strategies to thrive in challenging market conditions.In his opening remark, Roy said, 鈥淚ndustry is going through a VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) phase where market conditions are unstable. The government has come up with a bunch of projects but the ground reality differs.鈥� Bhusari recommended that SMEs should start considering IPOs for meeting their funding needs, pointing out, 鈥淭here is a dedicated MSME platform at NSE, which helps connect investors and MSMEs.鈥澛營n Kelkar鈥檚 words, 鈥淭oday, one of the major manufacturing industries, automobiles, has suffered a slowdown affecting many businesses. But a business should take much-needed learning from such situations and move ahead.鈥� According to Sharma, 鈥淪MEs shall realise that all repetitive jobs will soon be replaced by machine automation. This will create a need for niche skillsets, making training and education unavoidable. Thus, investing in your workforce today will serve better fruits in future.鈥澛犫�淚f an SME exports, it comes under government preview by default,鈥� observed Pangam. 鈥淭hus, such an effort will bring more tax collection, and so on.鈥� For his part, Choudhury expressed that Indian SMEs are busy supplying products invented years ago. 鈥淚n order for SMEs to grow, a change in mindset to think out of the box will do good in the long run,鈥� he underlined.Key to successIn his keynote address, Bhavesh Thakkar enlightened the audience about incentives available in India for SMEs and how to avail these. 鈥淯nawareness about incentive policies and a lengthy and cumbersome process are holding back SMEs from opting government schemes,鈥� he iterated. 鈥淰arious benefits like set-offs, claims or savings on import duty can be availed under these schemes.鈥澛燭hakkar drew everyone鈥檚 attention to the Manufacture and Other Operations in Warehouse Regulations 2019 (MOOWR), which came into place last year. He explained, 鈥淢OOWR 2019 is a revolutionary regulation, giving authority to use to the owner of any warehoused goods to carry on any manufacturing or other operations in a warehouse, subject to permission of the principal commissioner/commissioner of customs and various conditions thereon.鈥�
